HS2 News

Local authorities will be invited to bid for funding from the £2.3 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund announced yesterday via a prospectus to be published in the New Year, housing minister Gavin Barwell has told Planning.

Funding for key road upgrades around the UK as well as investment in driverless car technology and rail upgrades in central Birmingham were among the transport measures announced in today's Autumn Statement.

A £2.3 billion 'housing infrastructure fund' to deliver infrastructure to unlock up to 100,000 homes in areas of high demand is among a series of funding measures to boost housing delivery announced in chancellor Philip Hammond's Autumn Statement.

The cost of the necessary demolition and re-provision of a newly-built Crossrail depot to allow the planned Old Oak and Park Royal regeneration scheme to go ahead could reach £500 million, Planning understands.

This week's announcement that the government will support a third runway at Heathrow airport signals that, although there has been a slowdown in infrastructure projects, those that are coming forward are getting bigger.

Considering that it is operating in an era of continuing austerity, the planning system emerges reasonably well from this year's survey of applicants and planning authorities by consultants GL Hearn and industry body the British Property Federation.

Last month, the Treasury published a consultation on its proposed Shale Wealth Fund. The fund, which would redistribute tax revenue from shale gas production, was originally expected to be paid to local councils, but the government now proposes to pay individual residents as well.

HS2 In Depth

Planning rules based on European law are likely to take many years to change despite the Brexit vote, a London conference organised by Planning heard yesterday. Here are three key messages to emerge from the event.